One Chance Is All I Need
by hpgirl4ever
Summary: One day Hermione unknowingly stumbles onto something from Harry's past that he can't quite ignore, no matter how many times he tries, or more importantly, a certain Slytherin from it. But, after so much hurt, is he willing to give him a second chance?


Harry frowned, looking over at the blond directly across the hall from him at the Slytherin table, seemingly engrossed in conversation with Zabini as he picked disinterestedly at his food.

He sighed, out of all the people he had expected to come back to repeat seventh year and become the first 'eighth years' of Hogwarts, Harry hadn't expected Draco to be one of them.

Harry had done his best to avoid the blond, and from the way it seemed Draco had decided to give him the same courtesy. Harry didn't know what he had been expecting after the war, given his and Draco's history, but a small part of him had hoped for more than this.

"What's wrong Harry?" Hermione asked, seeming to somewhat reluctantly tear herself away from conversation with Ron about who knows what, turning to face the raven haired teen instead.

Dark eyebrows rose as he attempted to feign surprise, "Nothing, why do you ask?"

Hermione frowned, chewing on her lip in thought as she seemed to sort out just what she wanted to say. "It's just that, since we've come back, you've been so . . . distant. We're starting to worry."

Harry attempted a reassuring smile, but from Hermione's deepening frown, it was anything but. "Nothing's wrong Hermione, I've just been tired lately."

"Harry" Hermione said, voice lowering to a whisper as she leaned in, a sympathetic look in her eyes as she said, "I've noticed, you know. The way you sometimes look at Draco" she'd insisted on using first names since the war, throwing herself into the cause for inter house unity almost as vigorously as she had with S.P.E.W.

"I don't know what you're talking about Hermione" Harry said neutrally enough though with a look that clearly told her to drop it.

Hermione pushed on. "I'm starting to think . . . Harry, those nights, when you'd disappear. I mean, at first you were spying on him, you've told us that much, but . . . Sometimes Ron would say he was awake and you came back looking . . . Happier or disheveled or. . . Well, I don't know, I'm sorry I'm not quite getting to the point, but for a while there you and Malfoy didn't argue as much and now I'm wondering, if something happened between you two."

"Something like what?" Harry asked darkly.

Hermione blushed, a light flush of pink tinting her cheeks though she pressed on, "Oh don't make me spell it out." At Harry's stoic silence she continued, "Were you in . . . a relationship with Draco, a romantic one?"

"Look 'Mione, I don't know where'd you get a thought like that but you have no idea what you're talking about" the Gryffindor said firmly.

"Harry . . ."

"I'm going to class early" Harry said, a slight tremor to his voice as he grabbed his bag and left the Great Hall, unaware of the pair of silver eyes following his exit.

Harry plopped down in a chair at the very back of the Transfiguration classroom, putting his head tiredly on the table in front of him as he relished the empty classroom's silence.

He closed his eyes as the onslaught of memories he had been working all year to repress came soaring back to the forefront of his mind. Hermione didn't know how close she had gotten to the truth, and it pained Harry to be reminded of it.

"_Potter, I know you're there so you might as well take that fucking cloak off." _

_Harry froze from his place a few feet behind the blond on the astronomy tower, hesitating a moment before doing as told._

"_Er, sorry" Harry said, unsure why he was actually apologizing to Draco bloody Malfoy of all people but feeling he was intruding on something he hadn't been prepared to as he saw what looked like the beginning of tears in silver eyes. He slowly backed up, fully intending to leave as he was stopped by a sound._

_Draco chuckled, a humorless laugh that boarder lined on hysteria as a dangerous glint came to his eyes._

"_By all means stay, Potter. You came to spy, may as well ask what you want to know. I'm not stupid, I know you've been following me and sending those bloody elves after me as well."_

"_I didn't-"_

"_So, ask away?" Draco snapped, interrupting him, and now Harry was certain he could see the tears this time._

"_Malfoy" he said, shifting a bit nervously, extremely uncomfortable, "Er, what's wrong?"_

_Draco sighed, running a hand through pale blond hair that seemed to somewhat lack its usual luster as he turned his back on the Gryffindor, walking away from Harry as he sat on the edge of the tower, legs dangling as he rested his arms on the railing, staring out over the castle's dark grounds._

"_Just, go away Potter" Draco said wearily, tone lacking the malice it had held only moments ago._

_Harry, for some unfathomable reason, ignored him. _

It was then that they had begun somewhat of a civil relationship. That night they'd talked, carefully dodging the main issues though Harry did manage to gain some insight on the blonde's problems.

From there, they had many more nights atop the astronomy tower, both offering somewhat of a stable presence in the other's otherwise hectic life.

Harry wasn't quite sure, as he thought back, how their relationship had gone from enemies, to acquaintances to . . . lovers, in that year, but he now desperately wished he had just gone with reason and had left the astronomy tower that night.

"Potter"

Harry looked up, inwardly groaning as his eyes locked with the last person he'd wanted to see. And he'd thought his morning couldn't get any worse. . .

"Class doesn't start for another twenty minutes" Harry said warily, looking back at his desk resolutely.

Draco sighed, turning around to shut and lock the door with a few murmured spells before he walked over to the Gryffindor, attempting to catch his eyes in vain as he stood before the younger teen.

_Draco shut the door, walking over to Harry with a seductive grin as he wrapped pale arms around a slender waist. _

"_The Room of Requirement?" Harry asked, raising a dark eyebrow as he couldn't help matching Draco's small smile with one of his own._

_The blond shrugged, "Its cold out and I wanted some alone time" he murmured, leaning in to place a chaste kiss on rosy lips._

"_I hate that we have to hide this." Harry murmured, burying his face in the Slytherin's neck as Draco nodded sadly, humming in agreement as he softly kissed raven locks._

"_I know, and hopefully one day we won't, I'm sorry I can't give you more. I love you, Harry." _

_Harry looked up, eyes wide as he stared at the blond in shock. "What?"_

_Draco grinned, "I love you"_

_Harry bit his lip, before a matching large grin graced his features and he wrapped his arms tenderly around the blonde's neck. "I love you too"_

_Draco smiled, leaning down to claim Harry's lips in a fierce kiss, Harry returning the pressure eagerly as he opened his mouth for the Slytherin's adventuring tongue. _

_Harry gasped as he was picked up, legs automatically winding around Draco's waist as he was carried backwards, only to be thrown down onto a bed. He only had a moment to wonder when that had gotten there before he was otherwise preoccupied. . . _

Harry blushed at the memory, wanting nothing more than to just go back to bed and start the day over as he grabbed his bag, standing with every intention to at least do the first before his wrist was grabbed in a pale hand.

Harry jerked away as if he'd been burned, his arm tingling from the contact. "Fuck off Malfoy."

"Harry"

"It's Potter to you now, isn't it?" Harry said acidly, eyes narrowing dangerously.

Draco ignored the remark, "We should talk."

Harry frowned, closing his eyes to calm himself as he dropped his bag back on the ground, leaning back on his desk in resignation as he realized that Draco blocked the only exit, and had probably locked it with more than the standard spell to keep him in, and it really wouldn't due him any good to get detention hexing the blond.

"I don't see what there's to talk about" Harry sighed, turning his back on the blond as he contemplated simply stupefying him and making a run for it.

"Harry"

"Don't call me that" Harry hissed, "We're not . . . friends, we're not even acquaintances Malfoy."

"I've known you for eight years Harry."

"You only bothered to get to know me for one"

Draco was silent for a moment before he spoke, "I didn't mean it, y'know. I- I had to end it, I didn't have choice. I'm sorry, but I didn't mean what I said."

Harry scoffed, turning around so that his glare was directed on Draco instead of the wall.

"Yeah, well, you seem to make a habit of that, don't you?"

"_Hey" Harry said with a small smile as he entered the astronomy tower a minute before midnight._

_Draco turned, the smile Harry had grown so accustomed to strangely absent from the blonde's face. Draco remained silent, and Harry swore he saw something like regret flash briefly in silver eyes before the emotion was snuffed out like a candle, a coolly unreadable expression replacing it._

"_Potter" Draco drawled, a dark tone to his voice, "I can't believe that you were pathetic enough to come"_

_Harry frowned, confusion evident in his face as minute unease began to creep in. "What are you talking about, you asked me to meet you here?"_

_Draco smirked, a condescending smirk so unlike his past seductive ones. "How cute, little Potty here all by himself chasing after me like some lovesick schoolboy"_

"_Draco . . ."_

"_That's Malfoy to you Potter."_

"_What the fuck is going on?" Harry demanded, panic beginning to settle in._

_Draco's smirk only widened. "I thought it was obvious, I'm surprised the great Harry Potter was stupid enough to fall for something like this."_

_Harry swallowed, licking his suddenly dry lips, "Something like what?"_

_Silver eyes rolled as something like detached amusement danced in them, "Merlin, I didn't think I'd actually have to spell it out for you Potter. It, this, __**us**__, was all a lie. The Dark Lord only asked me to get close to you, but things changed. And thank Merlin for that, I don't have to keep up this ridiculous rouse of actually liking you."_

"_That . . . Draco . . . that can't be tr- . . . you said . . ."_

_Draco sneered, "What, that I loved you? It was a lie Potter, all of this was. You were just stupid enough to fall for it."_

"_This isn't funny" Harry murmured weakly, wanting desperately for Draco to smile and tell him that this was all just a joke, and knowing it wasn't._

"_No, what's funny is that you believed that I could ever want you. Look Potter, it's over, not that it ever began. Get over it. If you want to cry, by all means, cry, just not in front of me, you're pathetic enough as it is." And with that Draco left, leaving Harry to, to his great shame, do just that._

Draco winced; regret flooding his eyes as he looked at Harry sadly. "I deserved that."

"You deserve to have your bloody balls hexed off" Harry muttered.

"Merlin Harry, I'm sorry!" Draco said, with such a strong since of sincerity to his look that Harry couldn't help thinking that he meant it.

"How do you expect me to believe that?"

"Because you _know_ me" Draco said earnestly.

Emerald eyes darkened, "No, I don't know you, I thought I did, but _obviously_ I was wrong."

"Harry" Draco said softly, reaching a hand out to touch the Gryffindor and looking pained when Harry flinched away. "I can't take this anymore, not being with you. The next day, when I . . . When Snape . . ." he cleared his throat, "When I had to leave, that was horrible, the second hardest thing I had to do after what I said to you. The year was horrible. When I saw you at the Manor, I wanted so badly to tell you everything, and then after the war. But . . . I didn't want to make things harder for you, and, bloody hell Harry I can't take this anymore. This just ignoring each other, it's worse than when we hated each other."

Harry was silent for a moment, "So, what, you're saying you meant it, when you said . . . ?" his eyes closed, not sure he wanted to continue the painful conversation.

"I love you Harry." Draco said softly, insistently. "I never stopped. It fucking _killed _me to say I didn't, to see the pain I caused. But Merlin, I love you so _much_ Harry."

Emerald eyes opened to focused intensely on the blond in front of him. He wanted to believe him, and if he was honest with himself, already did. But he didn't want to open himself up to that kind of pain again.

Harry bit his lip nervously "If you're telling the truth-"

"I am" Draco insisted.

"Then, why didn't you just end it. Why did you have to be so cruel about it? Or, if you meant it when you said you loved me . . . If you meant it, why couldn't you just tell me the truth?"

"You'd have demanded a reason, or tried to find a way around it, and I wanted to make sure that you'd never want me, I didn't want to put you in danger. I didn't want to risk it."

Harry was quiet for a long moment, regarding Draco silently "I believe you" He began slowly, deciding he might as well be honest as Draco at least seemed to be doing so with him, "But, you hurt me. . . .Draco. I don't know if I can trust you not to do that again."

Draco swallowed, "I can't promise never to do something stupid in the future, but I can promise to never hurt you intentionally again. I mean it, I love you Harry"

Harry pursed his lips. A part of him feared that this could be just another trick, that he was only setting himself up for more pain. But another part of him, a stronger, larger part, argued that the Draco he had come to know in that year was the real Draco, and that he was being honest. And, even if he wanted follow the Hermione like voice in his brain, his heart was screaming too loudly at him to go for it to listen.

"You get one chance"

Draco smiled a genuine smile that Harry had come to love, and grown to miss so much, that took his breath away. Carefully, as if afraid he might startle him again, he stepped closer, gently cupping Harry's cheek in his hand as he leaned in, murmuring, "One chance is all I need" before he brought their lips together in a sweet, loving kiss, one of many more to come.

_AN: So I was bored and sick at home and decided to write this idea that I've had for a while. I hope it was okay!_

_Reviews are Love! =D_


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